Recordings made under
direct supervision of Ill Wind
and their producers:

Hanley Sessions - (1966/67 unreleased)

Full Cycle on Baubles, Vol. 1 LP - Big Beat, UK - WIK 72 (1988)

Capitol Sessions #1 - (1967 unreleased) produced by Dick Weissman

Capitol Sessions #2 - (1967 unreleased) produced by Dick Weissman

Capitol Sessions #3 - (1967 unreleased) produced by Dick Weissman

Flashes LP - ABC Records - ABCS-641 (1968) produced by Tom Wilson

In My Dark World/Walkin' and Singin' - 45-TW/A-305/A-302

High Flying Bird/In My Dark World - 45-TW/A-304/A-305

People of the Night and Full Cycle on Tom's Touch LP - EMI $tateside, Netherlands - LSSH 1501 (1969)

Hanley Sessions - (1966/67 unreleased)

Ill Wind's first studio recordings were made at the facilities of Hanley Sound in Boston using a 1/2-inch 4-track tape deck. Four songs were recorded: All Over Love is One, I Can See You, I Tell You I Know, and Ill Wind. Instrumental tracks were completed in late fall of 1966 but sessions were put on hold when singer Judy Bradbury decided to leave the band in order to take a teaching job in Hawaii. Recording was completed in December 1967 with Conny Devanney on lead and harmony vocals.

Capitol Sessions #1 - (1967 unreleased) produced by Dick Weissman

Rather than record another round of demos, the band decided to hire producer Dick Weissman and to record a set of release-quality cuts in the studios of Capitol Records in New York City. Weissman had previously worked with the Lost (who had been under contract with Capitol) and the sessions were undertaken with the understanding that they could serve as masters should Capitol decide to sign the band. Three songs were recorded in the initial sessions: Tomorrow You'll Come Back, You're All I See Now, and Are You Right? Recordings were made on 1/2-inch 4-track machines in Capitol's large Studio A.

Capitol Sessions #2 - (1967 unreleased) produced by Dick Weissman

Capitol was not completely "sold" on the first set of recordings, so the band returned to the studio to "punch up" the arrangements and try again. Are You Right? in particular was given a nastier lead guitar part and a more elaborate vocal arrangement.

Capitol Sessions #3 - (1967 unreleased) produced by Dick Weissman

In late August, following the band's mini-tour of California and a week playing the Eye in Long Island, the third set of sessions was mounted to record People of the Night and It's Your Life.

Flashes LP - ABC Records - ABCS-641 (1968) produced by Tom Wilson

Following Capitol Record's decision not to sign the band, Ill Wind was put in contact with producer Tom Wilson through the New York office of William Morris Agency. Wilson was riding high, having produced hit records for Simon and Garfunkle, Bob Dylan, the Animals, the Mothers of Invention and others, and he had just established his own independent production company Rasputin. He had signed a stable of acts and had licensing agreements for release through several labels. Ill Wind's album was to be released on ABC Records.

The album was recorded at Mayfair Studios in New York, during four weeks in February and early March, 1968 using a one-inch 8-track machine. A total of eleven tracks were recorded, of which nine were selected for inclusion on the album. The session engineer was Harry Yarmark and the remix engineer was Gary Kellgren. None of the band members were permitted in the mixing sessions. The album was released in June, 1968 with an initial pressing of 10,000 copies. These were all defective, having a repeated section during High Flying Bird as well as a back cover that was printed so dark as to be illegible. A second pressing of 2,500 copies corrected both faults.

In My Dark World/Walkin' and Singin' - 45-TW/A-305/A-302

The first version of the single was Dark World backed with Walkin' and Singin'. The only copy of this in our archive is a white-label promotional copy, so it may not have gone into commercial release.

High Flying Bird/In My Dark World - 45-TW/A-304/A-305

A second version with High Flying Bird backed with Dark World exists in both white-label promotional and commercial release versions. The size of the pressing is unknown.

People of the Night and Full Cycle on Tom's Touch LP - EMI $tateside, Netherlands - LSSH 1501 (1969)

I discovered the existence of this compilation through an eBay auction that I thankfully won at not too high a price. This is on the Dutch label "$tateside" that specialized in compilations and reissues of US records. There is no date information on the record, but I've seen references on the Web to the release date as 1969. All the artists on this album were produced by Tom Wilson. The cover art by Cal Schenkel, known for his Frank Zappa and Mothers of Invention covers.

Flashes reissue LP , Flash Records, Germany (1987)

Rumors of the existence of this allegedly German reissue have been in circulation, but it wasn't until March 2004 that I managed to get a copy through an eBay auction. It's a near-perfect copy, produced with evident love and respect for the music. The record label even has the note "All rights of the record producer and of the owner of the work reproduced reserved. Copying, public performance and broadcasting of this record prohibited." It isinteresting that even though the back cover incorrectly inverts the listings for "Sleep" and "People of the Night" (as they were on the original), the record label has the correct play order. This means, that unlike some people (e.g. A.L.) the producers of this reissue actually did listen to the music.

Flashes reissue CD with "bonus tracks" - Afterglow, UK- AFT 012 (1996)

This is as close to an "authorized" reissue of Flashes as has yet to be produced. During the mid-90s Dave Kinsman was approached about helping with a CD reissue by the UK label Afterglow. Dave provided a photograph, some liner notes, and a flier from an Ill Wind gig at the Boston Tea Party. These were all used in the package design. He also provided a cassette recording of some early demo recordings done at Hanley Sound in Boston and at Capitol Records in New York, but this was ostensibly just to give an idea of what might also be available. A few months later he received copies of the finished CD, including the bonus tracks! Afterglow and its chief protagonist have since vanished into the haze. I actually had to buy several copies of this CD to give out to the band.

In My Dark World and High Flyin' Bird on BOSSTOWN SOUND - 1968 The Music & The Time compilation CD, Big Beat, UK - CDWIK2 167 (1996)

Flashes reissue LP - unknown label, Greece? (2000)

This LP reissue of Flashes showed up on eBay in 2000. It's a decent production job, with good audio quality on heavy duty vinyl. There is no information about the company that produced it, but a mail-order house in Athens, Greece was the only source for the record (although they claimed it was German).

Flashes reissue LP and CD - Akarma, Italy - AK 162 (2001)

This one really came out of left field! I was in the midst of negotiating an authorized European reissue of Flashes through a Dutch company, and we'd gotten to the point of getting permission from Universal Music (the master tape is in their vault, so the presumption is that they own the license). Then we learned that an Italian label Akarma (a division of Comet Records) was already advertising the imminent release of their own reissue. Imagine my further dismay when I learned that the recording had been produced by Alan Lorber. Not only did Lorber never have anything to do with Ill Wind, but it was his "Bosstown Sound" fiasco that virtually eliminated any interest in Boston rock by the time our original album was released. To add insult to injury, Lorber didn't get his facts straight on the liner notes and misidentified some of the songs. He also listed inaccurate production and release dates. In addition, the audio production leaves a lot to be desired. Everything sounds like it was pumped through a digital noise reduction algorithm, but without anyone really listening to the the results. The final slap is that Lorber included several of the "bonus tracks" from the Afterglow CD. I mean that quite literally—the cuts were either dubbed directly from the CD or they came from a cassette copy of the original acetates. Despite these flaws, the physical packaging is quite nice. The cover looks better than it did on the original release!